California union targets Arizona hospital CEO pay
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A California health care workers union is continuing a decade-long trend of seeking to put proposed laws on Arizonans' ballots with a citizen initiative that would cap hospital executives' salaries.
The big picture: Service Employees International Union-United Health Care Workers West (SEIU-UHW) launched a campaign earlier this month to get a citizen initiative on the 2026 ballot.
- The measure would limit hospital executives' salaries to 15 times the state's $14.70 minimum wage — it'll go up next year — which would be $458,640.
- To get on the ballot, the initiative needs nearly 256,000 valid signatures by July 2, 2026.
Catch up quick: This is the fifth time in the past decade that SEIU-UHW has tried to put a citizen initiative on Arizona's ballot.
- The union ran a similar measure on hospital executive pay in 2016, proposed capping kidney dialysis costs in 2018 and collected signatures in 2020 for a sweeping measure that included limiting unexpected medical bills.
- The union withdrew the 2016 measure amid a court challenge, the 2020 proposal didn't qualify for the ballot, and it abandoned its plans to collect signatures for the 2018 initiative.
- In 2022, voters overwhelmingly approved an SEIU-UHW-backed measure that gave people with medical debt new protections from creditors.
What they're saying: SEIU-UHW spokesperson Renée Saldaña told Axios that the health care system "is not working the way it should" and costs are "out of control."
- The money that hospitals are spending on multimillion-dollar executive salaries should instead go to patient care and staff, Saldaña said.
The other side: Brittney Kaufmann, CEO of the Health System Alliance of Arizona, an advocacy group representing hospitals and health care systems, told Axios that capping executive pay would severely impede hospitals' ability to attract and retain top talent.
- Delivering quality health care is a difficult task, and you want the best and brightest people leading organizations that do it, she said.
Zoom out: SEIU-UHW recently launched ballot measure campaigns in California to limit pay for hospital executives and administrators, and to cap administrative spending at federally qualified health centers.
The intrigue: The union has repeatedly attempted to put measures on the Arizona ballot despite not having any members in this state.
- "Our work doesn't stop at state borders, the same way health care challenges don't stop at state borders," Saldaña said.
- She said the union would like to see similar reforms enacted in the health care system nationwide and noted that issues in one state can affect others, such as when Arizonans sought abortions in California due to restrictions here.
- Saldaña wouldn't comment on whether the union hopes the ballot measure will help it organize or gain members here.